anyone using TC Powercore in 2020? (Discontinued in 2011)

[macStuff]

as is common knowledge at this point: TC Electronic have discontinued the Powercore platform back in 2011
not sure when the product was first introduced? 2001? 2002?

im just taking a quick look back at this topic that i previously largely overlooked; (in favor of UAD)
my questions for those more versed than i on this topic are:
is it still possible to buy + use TC powercore Products in macos9 in 2020?
im alot less familiar with this topic then with the uad-1 product;

how many different powercore products were there?
let me see if i can answer that.. if anything is missing or incorrect please correct me

PowerCore (Original?)
http://web.archive.org/web/20040409041843/http://www.tcelectronic.com/PowerCore

PowerCore PCI mkII
http://web.archive.org/web/20051123115129/http://www.tcelectronic.com/Default.asp?Id=1233

PowerCore Compact
http://web.archive.org/web/20050829194948/http://www.tcelectronic.com/PowerCoreCompact

PowerCore Element (is this the first "Mk1" version? or a budget scaled down version?)
http://web.archive.org/web/20050901082227/http://www.tcelectronic.com/PowerCoreElement

PowerCore Firewire
http://web.archive.org/web/20050831112915/http://www.tcelectronic.com/PowerCoreFireWire

PowerCore Express
PowerCore Unplugged (i'm guessing this version comes with 0 plugins?)
PowerCore 6000
PowerCore X8
PowerCore X8 Sonnox Edition

http://web.archive.org/web/20011214123248/http://www.tcelectronic.com/products.asp?page=overview
http://web.archive.org/web/20040409041843/http://www.tcelectronic.com/PowerCore
http://web.archive.org/web/20050907013812/http://www.tcelectronic.com/PowerCoreComparison
http://web.archive.org/web/20120516234658/http://www.tcelectronic.com/powercore.asp
http://web.archive.org/web/20120517120154/http://www.tcelectronic.com/powercorefamily.asp
http://web.archive.org/web/20120520010529/http://www.tcelectronic.com/powercore3.asp
http://web.archive.org/web/20120520155424/http://www.tcelectronic.com/powercoreconcept.asp
https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/tc-electronic-powercore-firewire

[Stephan-O]

I believe I am one of the last 10 guys (5 maybe...) in the world playing with the TC Powercore in Cubase VST...
The only model you can play with, is the original PCI version.
None of the further releases (PCI MKII, FW, etc, ) are what working in OS9...
Hth.

[DieHard]

TC Electronics PowerCore (Hardware Driver, Plugin Suite) - Version 1.6.1

The Download Folder also includes the World-class 247C Compressor and ClassicVerb Reverb Plugin Installs

Here is all our Powercore software
http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,1146.0.html

The only caveat is the Master X3 that was authorized per serial number on the board,
I still have six originals with the Master X3 authorized Cubase Master X3 if you need one inexpensively

[sequencers.io]

I still have six originals with the Master X3 authorized Cubase Master X3 if you need one inexpensively

I might be interested in one of these.. I'll send a DM...

[refinery]

Interestingly enough, if you happen to have a Hackintosh with PCI ports, the original PCI powercore cards work perfectly fine up to at least 10.14...

[IIO]

powercore license unlocker is now available.

we needed 2-3 people with a card and missing licenses (such as someone who has not yet installed his master X5) who can test something before we post it here.

PM

[AtariMan]

Where can you read about it? Need to flash the card or have a patch?

[IIO]

you need to put the card into a computer which can boot into windows, then try to patch the OS9 and OSX PPC demo versions under windows.

OSX intel works this way, PPC is still untested but should use the same encryption. eventually we need to restructure the resource forks later.

do you have a spare win computer with PCI around?

i am not going to search for the demo installers when nobody can help / wants it for himself.

[AtariMan]

Thanks for the answer. One of these days I'll try to get a Pentium 4 from my friends.
Should this be done in Windows XP or Windows 7?

[IIO]

the later one wont hurt i think.

[nickbirkby]

Im still using my Powercore PCI and very happy with it. I have just today successfully installed the 247 and Classicverb, super pleased.

I never managed to get the Master X on my card, I would be keen to give it a try..

[IIO]

you would need to put the card into a windows PC, then generate a license there using a copy of the OS9 plug-in. there are two different methods, both are unknown terrain for OS9 and OSX PPC. eventually we can also make use of the windows plug-in to reach what we seek for. if you are ready to try it, send a PM.

[refinery]

you don't need to put the card in a PC to generate the license or patch the existing plugins. I used the patcher in a windows 10 VM on hardware that didnt even have a powercore installed and it worked fine when I moved them over to the machine that does have them installed. For the OSX versions anyway.

[nickbirkby]

Thank you both for the replies. Im on 9.2

I have a spare machine running Vista that has PCI slots. Will Dm.

[IIO]

could you add what exactly you used (and didnt you try the same with OS9 / carbon plug-ins?)

i cant recall, what was the last version for PPC? 4.4.3? if all products exist in late enough versions then this would be a sufficient solution.

unfortunately, surround and restoration demo for OS9 is not in my collection. the one to test the procedure with is X5 or, if you have missed the free registration, X3.

that would be funny if it actually worked using virtual PC in OS9. i have totally missed that idea, and never had something like that installed.

[refinery]

according to my research, at least the last "official" version of the powercore software (4.3.3, I have not found a change log for the later "beta" releases) there is still support for PowerPC architecture. I will try to test this out soon with 10.5 in my dual-core G5 and my powercore express card.

As for OS9, I think it would be a totally different ball game. The OS9 versions of the software were all 1.x versions, and back in those days the powercore used a different registration mechanism than the later 2nd generation cards. I dont think there was ever support for the second generation cards in OS9. I do have a PCI MK2 I can use to test this theory.

I recall, wayyyyyyyy back in the timefog, that the old powercore registration mechanism was cracked at one point... which was why they introduced the second generation cards with their "uncrackable" copy protection mechanisms (they weren't far off in that assessment... only took ten years after it was discontinued for somebody to figure it out?)  But I think that the first generation cards were just done by serial number or challenge/response, as there's no mechanism in the TC POwercore control panel for registering a plugin.

[DieHard]

Software can be found here for the original long PCI card (non-element version); Version 1.6.1 and some later added plugins
The Element version of the PCI card does not run all the plugins and could NOT run Master X3, their premiere Multi-Band compressor for Mixing/Mastering

http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,1146.0.html

All these stock plugins run under OS9 and do NOT need challenge codes or serial numbers, the main exception to the rule was Master X3...

Back in the day you would email TC and they would send you back a Master X3 plugin file that was "married" to your card via the cards serial number.  At one point TC refused all requests for the free Master X3 under OS9 claiming "we no longer have the machine (or ability) to generate Master X3 plugins for OS9"  which really sucked for those who bagged cheap cards from eBay and could not get a Master X3 plugin file for OS9.  The "non-element" version of the PCI card sold for over $1000 back in the day and Master X3 was one of the selling features; I bought about 4 cards back in the day because the quality and results of the plugins were way above what was available in "Native" VST stuff, of course, Protools was a whole different topic.  The original Powercore, IMO, was the "Protools of VST"

Now, to the point, as far as I know, nobody has been able to reproduce generating the Master X3 serialized file or fake the process of getting Master X3 to run under OS9; please let me know if this has changed.  FYI, I have 5 to 6 unique master X3 files for Mac OS 9 and the serial number of each card associated with each file if anyone wants to reverse engineer or figure the differences in each file that corresponds to each card's serial number.

[IIO]

that is what we are talking. the combined license / blowfish encryption of poco has been cracked recently and enables all plug-ins, but until now nobody has tried it on Mac PPC.

on OS9 we probably only need it for the surround and restoration bundles, master X5 - and for master X3 non-enabled cards - for OSX it is about 7 or so more plug-ins which are using the tc protection scheme, including virus unlimited.

as soon as someone successfully tried it we can write a guide how it works - with or without using a windows computer.

as usual, atm everybody waits until somebody else tries it first.^^

and we still dont have the missing demo versions, for some reaons i also dont have them from back in the days.

[refinery]

Well I have every version of the Powercore cards except the element (which I think was just repackaged 1st gen cards) so I am happy to do some testing. Just need the installers for the non-free plugins.
The one I always wanted to get my hands on was the Waldorf d-coder. I asked Tc support once upon a time and they basically gave me the same answer, they stopped having the ability to issue OS9 licenses a long time prior.

[refinery]

There's also one important thing to note... There's two versions of the cracks out there... There is the unlocker which as I understand it, disables the demo timer, and then there's the license generator which creates fully-working license files. After that, as far as the card is concerned, you've just loaded a legit license file to the card, and is permanently bound to the card. So those should by all expectation work perfectly fine in a PPC Mac as there's no cracking trickery involved at that point.